Page 37

THIRTY-SEVEN

RILEY

Every time I’m with Lexi, it’s like a fever dream. Something I know is happening but can’t believe, because how am I the bastard lucky enough to see her with her dark hair scattered across her pillows and her hands lifting above her head? How am I the one she asks to come over and take care of her because no one else makes her feel as good as I do?

I like her.

I like her so fucking much.

I like her even more when she reaches for me and I intertwine our fingers, giving her palm a squeeze.

What would it be like if we did this forever?

If I woke up next to her every morning and fell asleep beside her every night?

That would be a thing of dreams and miracles and everything I’ve ever wanted because it’s her . The woman I haven’t been able to get out of my head from the moment I first saw her. The day she was wearing dark jeans and a bright blue Stars polo, her hair up in a ponytail and a wide smile on her face.

“Are you okay?” she asks, and I hear the worry behind the question.

“Better than okay.”

I squeeze her hand one more time and sit on the edge of the bed. I take off my shoes and my clothes until I’m left naked. She’s still in her pretty lace set, and I wonder if she has one in every color. A different style for every day of the week. I’d like her to model them all for me, to try them on so I can get my fill of the ways the fabric shows off her curves and how good her tits look when they’re pressed together.

I stretch out on her mattress next to her, my head on the pillows and a hand around my cock. That blowjob she gave me was earth-shattering and took almost everything out of me, but I got hard again the minute she told me to crawl to her. And watching her touch herself in the ways she likes? Saying my name like I was the key to her salvation? I almost came in my pants.

“Can I get on top?” Lexi strokes my arm, her hand folding around mine and helping me jerk off. “I don’t normally like that position, but with you…” She trails off with a laugh. “Everything is better with you.”

“Yeah.” I nod, the grip on my shaft slackening when she shifts to her right and puts a leg on either side of my hips. I hold onto her waist, fingers pressing into her fair skin, and she sighs when my thumbs tangle in the waistband of her underwear. “With you too.”

She hovers above me, a hand on my chest. She uses her other hand to hold my cock and drags the head through the lace of her underwear, across her entrance. I groan when she teases me by sinking down on my length and pulling herself back up before I can thrust into her. It’s maddening, electric , and in a sudden burst of strength I didn’t know I had these days, I flip her off of me so I’m the one on top and she’s on her back.

Lexi gasps and I grin, fisting my shaft and dragging it against the rough material of her underwear again.

“Fucking tease,” I murmur, and she wraps her legs around my middle.

“What are you going to do about it?” she challenges.

“You know exactly what I’m going to do about it.” I lift my chin. “The ropes are too far away, so I want you to hold on to the headboard.”

“Anything else you want me to do?”

“Yeah.” I yank her underwear to the side and touch her clit, smirking when she lifts her hips and moans. “Take every inch of my cock and say thank you when I make you come.”

“Condom?” Lexi asks, the second syllable cracking when I rub my thumb in a slow circle.

We’ve talked about not using one, and I know she’s comfortable with it, but up to this point, I’ve worn protection every time. I’m not sleeping with anyone else, and I know she’s not either. I’ve been afraid to remove that barrier out of fear she’ll think this is turning into something other than sex and bolt.

I’ve dreamed about fucking her raw, though. I think about it every time I’m inside her and all the places I’d finish and mark her; across her chest where I’d write my name and add my old hockey number, just because I can. In her pussy so I can see how pretty she is when she’s full of my cum. Along the curve of her ass so I can press my thumb into the tight hole she’s only teased me with.

Fuck.

I’d put it on my own forehead, spelling out Lexi Armstrong is going to be the death of me so the entire world knows who is making me a useless, idiotic mess of a man.

“What do you want?” I ask, deferring to her.

“I-I…” She sinks her teeth into her bottom lip, deep in thought. “I want you to fuck me without one.”

Hell .

Forget using my cum.

I want those eight words tattooed across my chest. Branded on my skin, right above my heart, so I can remember my time of death.

“Okay.” I nod. My head is swimming. “We’re going to do a little rearranging.”

“What can I do?”

“Can you put a pillow under your hips? I’m going to, ah, keep my right foot on the bed and my leg bent so it doesn’t start to hurt. I don’t want… I’m afraid the lip of the socket is going to rub against your thighs, so if it does, will you?—”

“I’m going to be fine.” Lexi puts a pillow under her ass, cups my face with her hands, and I relax. “And if it doesn’t work, we’ll go back to what we know does work. I have no complaints about anything we’ve done so far, Riley. Five stars. A ten out of ten Yelp rating for your dick. I want to feel you, and I don’t care if that happens when you’re on top or I am.”

“Okay,” I say again. “I want you to keep your underwear on. You look so pretty in them, and I like knowing I’m going to make a mess of you.”

“Riley Mitchell.” Her hands fall from my cheeks and to her underwear, pulling it to the side and giving me access to what I’ve been dreaming about since I walked through her front door. Wet, pink. So fucking mine. “You are so far from the sweet boy I thought you were.”

“Five stars, remember? And don’t pretend like you want sweet.” I bend my knee and scoot closer to her. I drag the head of my cock against her entrance and she whines. I push inside, the feel of her without a barrier between us goddamn exquisite. “You want everything but sweet.”

“I want you ,” she says, her whine turning into a moan when I sink the first half of my shaft inside her. “You, Riley.”

That unlocks some possessive, jealous part of my brain I’ve never tapped into before, and I dive headfirst into the feeling. I don’t wait for her to get used to the stretch before I pull out of her and thrust deep into her pussy, not stopping until I’m buried to the hilt.

It’s probably a good thing we’ve used a condom up to this point. Otherwise, I would’ve proposed to her. Asked to take her last name and found a way to keep her in bed with me every hour of every day just so I could fuck her until my body gave out. The sensation is better than anything I’ve ever experienced.

There’s a roar in my head when she drops her hand from the headboard so her nails can scratch my ass, urging me to fuck her deeper, harder , and I yield all my power to her. I’m unrelenting, every snap of my hips more aggressive than the last, and I wait for her to tell me it’s too much. I wait for her to tell me to stop, that she needs a break, but she doesn’t. Lexi squirms on the sheets, her chest heaving and eyes wide, gaze locked on me as she swallows down a gulp of air.

“What do you say?” I ask, and the right side of her mouth hitches up in a bold and beautiful smile.

“Thank you.” She moves the hand not holding her underwear from my ass to her breast, pinching her nipple then rolling it between her thumb and finger. “Thank you, Riley, for making me feel so fucking good.”

“You’re mine,” I say, and her face softens. There’s a flash of fear behind her eyes before she blinks it away and arches her back off the bed. “My friend. My favorite person. Mine ,” I repeat.

“I’ve never been anyone’s,” she whispers, clenching around my cock. She closes her eyes and blows out an exhale. “But I think I am yours.”

We don’t say anything else, instead sinking into the rhythm of each other as we climb toward the edge of relief. I hold back, wanting her to go first, and she does when I touch her clit again. I talk her through it, telling her how strong she is. How well she’s doing and how beautiful she is when she takes my cock. She whispers thank you over and over again until pleasure races up my spine. Until she cups my balls in her hand and rubs her thumb over the shape of them, and I can’t take it anymore.

I lose it too, my right leg almost giving out when I slam into her a final time and follow her over. I pulse inside her, my heart racing and a bead of sweat rolling down my cheek until I’m empty and delirious when it comes to anything but her pussy and how I never want to pull out of her.

“Fuck,” Lexi says. She lets go of her underwear, the lace rubbing against my sensitive skin and making me jerk my hips again. “How was that ten times better than with a condom?”

“I don’t know.” I wipe my forehead with the back of my arm. “I could feel you the whole time though.”

“And how did it feel?”

“Heaven on fucking earth,” I say. She laughs, then winces when I pull out of her and leave a trail of cum on the inside of her thigh. I swipe my thumb through the sticky mess and bring it to her chest. I yank down the cups of her bra and circle her nipples until they’re covered in my release too. “God. You’re a vision.”

“How do I look?”

“Perfect. Beautiful.”

“We’re never using a condom again.”

“Never.”

Her beam is a punch to the gut. “Come here, Mitchy.”

I grimace as I move toward her, my right thigh throbbing from bending in a way it hasn’t before. “I think we need to start covering sex positions in our sessions so I can strengthen the muscles I use when I fuck you.”

“I’m sure Coach would love to come in and hear what we’re doing when he asks what we’ve worked on for that day. I don’t think that was included in our agreement.”

“Coach can fuck off. He’d be a lot less uptight if he got laid.” I settle next to her and she rests her head on my chest. “I can also add a treatment table to my place so we can work on things there.”

“I’ll do some research. We’ll get you in tiptop shape, and your next friend with benefits won’t know what hit them.”

I frown as I wrap an arm around her shoulder. I can’t imagine someone else being in Lexi’s place. I don’t want to imagine someone else in Lexi’s place. I know we said no feelings and no emotions, but the things I feel for her stretch far outside the bedroom. They teeter toward I think I might be falling in love with you and if you gave me your heart, I’d promise to protect it for as long as you wanted .

At what point do I tell her what I’m thinking? Do I keep my mouth closed for the rest of eternity and suffer in silence? Do I risk mentioning it and pushing her away? I told myself I wanted her any way I could have her, and that’s still true, but it feels like I’m lying to her the longer we keep this physical thing going between us, and that’s the last thing I want to do.

“Cool,” I say. “Sounds good to me.”

“Maybe you’ll meet a woman who’s also an amputee. She’d understand what you’ve gone through.”

“Maybe.”

Lexi pulls away from me and frowns. “Are you okay?”

“I’m great. Just tired. Your pussy is something else, Lex.”

“Right back at you. Well, not… you know what I mean,” she says with a grin. “You had a bag earlier. Does that mean you’re sleeping over?”

“Is it okay if I sleep over?”

“Yeah.” She rolls her lips together, looking deep in thought. “That would be okay. I slept so well the night you stayed over when I was sick. It’s like my body knows it’s safe around you.”

“You are safe around me.” I play with the ends of her hair, and her frown turns up into a smile. “I brought clothes for our session tomorrow too, so I’ll catch an Uber from here to the arena.”

“Why would you do that? I’ll drive you.”

“You don’t have to. I know you want to keep this just between us, and if we show up together, the guys might?—”

“Think we’re friends? So what? We are friends.” She sits up straight and leans against the headboard. “I know we’re sleeping together, but I also like… I like spending time with you, Riley, when we’re not sleeping together.”

“Yeah?” I sit up and mirror her pose. I can tell this is a lot to admit to me, that it goes against everything Lexi usually stands for, and I don’t want her to think I’m not appreciative. “So do I.”

“And maybe we can…” Lexi folds her hands over each other, and I swear I see a blush on her cheeks. “Do other things that aren’t in the bedroom or a treatment table?”

I can’t fight back my grin. I want to jump up and down and pump my fist in the air because that’s promising. Things outside the bedroom is something I can work with, and holy hell does my heart gallop at the thought of hanging out with her wherever I want.

“Are you asking me on a date, Armstrong?” I tease, and she hits me in the face with a pillow. “Here I was thinking no one was ever going to want to date me again.”

“ No . It’s not a date. It would just be… not in the bedroom,” she says. “And plenty of people are going to want to date you. You’re a catch, Mitchy.”

“Ah. I love not bedrooms.”

“I’m ignoring you.” She tries to climb off the bed, but I grab her around her waist and pull her back to me. She squeals and tries to shove me off of her, but I don’t budge. “Let me go!”

“Never, you stubborn woman,” I murmur in her ear, dropping a kiss to her neck. “Where are we hanging out first?”

“I have a plan, but it’s a surprise. You’ll have to wait until our away game in New York to find out.”

“Please don’t tell me it’s a tour of the hot dog carts in Manhattan. I promised Ethan if I ever had the chance to do that, I’d do it with him.”

“It’s not hot dog carts.” She laughs and relaxes into me, her back flush against my chest. “It’s something else. Better than hot dogs.”

“That’s a bold statement.”

“Most of the things I say are bold statements.”

“You’re going to make me wait a week and a half to find out? You’re cruel.”

“You like it,” Lexi says.

“Maybe I do,” I answer, and some flutter of hope I’ve never had before springs to life in my chest at the possibilities.